brand. In the past, I have restored or freshened up more than a few Pentons, but have never tried to do it
on a shoestring budget.
e fi rst step in the process is to take an inventory of what I have and essentially label each item as good,
bad or ugly. I spent an hour or so taking a closer look at everything and just pulled together a list to de-
termine if this idea is doable. I bought two bikes, both produced for the `72 model year:
Roach 1 – Build date of August 1971. Engine: Sachs 125/6A, Carb: Amal Concen-
tric 22MM. Forks: Ceriani 32MM with narrow single pinch bolt triple trees. Ignition: MIA, but there's a
Motoplat coil attached to the frame. Bike was most likely delivered with Bosch ignition with points, then
upgraded to a Motoplat ignition at some later date.
Good/Bad/Ugly
• Good: Absolutely beautiful set of aluminium fenders. No doubt these were pulled when the orig-
inal owner snagged a set of Preston Petty's back in the day. I will save these, but not necessarily for this
build.
• Good: Original 32MM Ceriani fork tubes and sliders are in very good shape and still function as
suspension. I will defi nitely be using these in the build.
• Good: Very nice ZKW small (90MM) bullet style headlamp. ese (as well as other sizes and
brands) headlamps came as part of the Penton Enduro Kit. is will get squirreled away for a pretty build
in the future.
• Good: Decent set of very early Preston Petty fenders. ese will get used in the build.
• Good: Decent set of original Radaelli rims. Both appear straight and without any fl at spots.
Spokes are all intact and the rust on the front one may clean up with a little patience.
• Good: Correct original handle bars, some rust but no other damage. ese will probably clean up.
• Good: Fiberglass seat pan is in decent usable shape.
• Good: Frame has a Motoplat red wire coil, the one with the diode inside it that can be used with
both the early and later Motoplat mini 6 stators. May be able to use this if I can fi nd a stator and fl ywheel
to go with it.
• Good: Airbox is still in decent shape, not busted up.
• Bad: Tank is in rough shape. Somebody got a little over aggressive with sanding it at some point
in time and it has some paper thin areas.
• Bad: Has an MX pipe in pretty rough shape, but with some blasting and welding, it will do.
• Bad: Missing side stand. Nice reproductions are available, but pricey.
• Bad: Has original Girling shocks which are in rough shape, but the sha s look good. I may be able
to rebuild these.
• Ugly: Sachs 125/6A engine is in very rough shape. Locked up tight. Right side case is busted up
from a chain drop, kicker sha is missing so someone's been in there playing. I am guessing this will just
be a parts donor motor.
• Ugly: Horrible welding repair done on the engine mounts on the down tubes. Just not usable in
this condition, but could be fi xed with a lot of work.
• Ugly: Swingarm has been hacked up. All of the brackets that should be there have been hacked
off and the shock mounts have been monkeyed with. Not usable.
• Ugly: Missing stator cover. ese are getting diffi cult to fi nd in decent shape as most were trashed
by chain drops.
• Ugly: Seat foam is roached, throttle and all cables are missing.
Roach 2 – Build date May 1972. Engine: Sachs 125/6B, Carb: Bing 26.5MM. Forks:
Ceriani 32MM with the wider triple trees with double pinch bolts. Ignition: Bosch with points.
• Good: Beautiful original tank. With some buffi ng this should look like new.
• Good: Nice airbox and airbox cover with the original "DISCLAIMER WARRANTY" label at-
tached.
38 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com
